1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technology that easily registers a desired document and manages viewing the document in a document management system for accumulating and managing various documents, which improves an operability of a document registration by customizing menus and commands viewed on a user interface upon performing a registration operation of a document.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is becoming essential that information in the world is provided in the form of electronic data with development of infrastructure of the Internet or the like. When the information is provided in a form of electronic data, quick information transmission is possible provided that the infrastructure is equipped.
In addition, since electronic data are advantageous in search properties, it is possible to acquire desired information from a great deal of the accumulated information in a short time. In consequence, it is recently becoming a requisite condition that the information is configured of the form of electronic data.
Further, a document management system or a file server which manages electronic data can accumulate a great deal of information in a saving space. In addition, the infrastructure which transmits information at high speeds and has no limitation to connection locations is widely available and therefore, the document management system or the file sever is becoming equipped with search capabilities for acquiring desired information from a great deal of the accumulated information.
Since various types of information such as images, video images and the like are stored in the document management system, the document management system raises the problem that a user is required to select a search method in accordance with the type of the information at management or search processing of the document. For solving this problem, it is general to use the technology of providing a uniform access method by centralization management at the database (refer to Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. H09-251416 (1997)). With the advancement of these technologies, the document management system or the file server is generally and widely used as an effective system for information sharing in many companies, projects, education sites, families and the like.
The reason for wide use thereof is that many users can accumulate various kinds of information in the document management system without time limitation to unify the management of the information, carry out a search for desired information from the document management system when necessary, and share that information. However, the data can not be necessarily managed efficiently even if the document management system is introduced.
An electronic data has advantages that it does not need a physical storage location as in the case of papers, is easily handled and is easily edited. On the contrary, because of easiness of data handling, a great deal of data is easily accumulated in a document management system, and therefore, similar but different documents are stored in plenty therein. In consequence, there are considerable cases where at the time of searching for desired information, that information can not be distinguished.
Therefore, even if a management target is used in the form of electronic data, a use rule is needed in the document management system for managing documents. Such a use rule may be in advance determined between users, but since the user can arbitrarily determine it, there are many cases where that rule is not kept. The document management tends to be easily out of control. In addition, in a case where the management rule does not exist from the beginning, a user quite often changes or transfers document names by preference, possibly resulting in the difficulty of searching a target document.
The method of arbitrarily entrusting a user with a document management can be established on precondition that all of users observe its rule, but it is actually difficult to determine an optimal rule suitable for each actual use way of various kinds of users and force the users to completely keep them.
Further, a rigid or inelastic rule is not suitable for use ways of various users, but on the contrary, when a rule is detailed too much, it is difficult to have a user keep it. That is, the method of entrusting the user with the management can not be a fundamental solution.
In order that many users share and manage various types of documents in a document management system with a folder layered structure, it is important for each user to have recognition of the three following points:
1. Document names
2. Storage locations of documents (folder and path)
3. How to use user interfaces and commands for executing processing
For example, in a case of registering a document, it is required to recognize in which folder among a folder layer the document should be stored. In a case of opening a desired document, it is required to recognize where the desired document is and what document the desired document is.
In a case of opening a document, it is required to understand what series of operations are required to be performed to a user interface.
That is, at the time of sharing a document, when the document is registered considering in which folder the document should be stored for easy access to the document and what document name should be produced for efficient access to the document, it results in a need of a lot of workforce.
In a case of opening a document a storage location of which is not clear, it is needed to search for a location where the document is placed by document name search. In a case where a folder in which a document is stored is known, it is required that the folder is opened to view a document list, and search for a target document from the document list is carried out.
However, even if the document name is known, in a case where the document with the same name is stored in a plurality of folders, there are many cases where determination on in which folder the desired document is provided can not be made.
Also in a state where documents are actually shared using the document management system or the file server, there are many cases where the storage location of the desired document or the accurate document name can not be recognized, leading to requiring many labor forces for searching. Actually, versions in regard to the document are produced at a random and therefore, many similar documents exist. In consequence, a user actually searches for a desired document with difficulty from information such as a date of the document or a memory of the document content.
A rule is needed for sharing and managing a document in a document management system. However, if such a rule is not suitable for various, actual use states and users, a user feels that a rule is rigid or inelastic and it is difficult to handle.
Further, when a rule is described at length with plenty of detail, it is required for a user to perform an operation after recognizing all of the rules. Such a system is very difficult for a user to use.